The Council of the Ordinary

B-Boying takes a turn towards the dark side

It’s beat battles and break moves but not as you know them, in this triple bill from breakdancing troupe Bad Taste Cru. As well as flipping themselves into spins, the Cru, originally from Northern Ireland, also demonstrate the dance’s potential to explore darker subject matter.

Their first piece, Aftermath, was choreographed as a response to growing up in the shadow of terrorist threats. There is certainly an undertone of confrontation that resonates through their duets. Later they lie in square spotlights, picked out, one by one, flinching in contortions of pain.

In The Mirror, dancer Rokas Salteris stalks his looking-glass counterpart Robby Graham in a game of follow the leader. When they propel away from each other, a balletic poise flows through their movements, and the dance, though maintaining a threatening edge, also has a surprisingly graceful touch.

Tribal Assembly sees a four-way battle between a homeless person, a tracksuited heavy, a businessman and a punk. The flashiest breaking may come out of this one, but so too do the piece’s tenderest moments of support.